Biomet said it’s agreed to acquire spinal implant maker Lanx Inc. for an undisclosed amount as it revealed a swing to fiscal 1st-quarter black.
The Warsaw, Ind.-based orthopedics giant said the deal will expand its spine offering with Lanx’s Timberline and Aspen spinal fusion systems.
"These products are complementary to Biomet Spine’s comprehensive offering of products, including the Lineum OCT spine system, MaxAn anterior cervical plate system, Cellentra VCBM and the Polaris translation screw system," according to a press release.
The deal is expected to close by Nov. 29, Biomet said.
"This is an exciting opportunity for Biomet to improve its competitiveness in the spine market by leveraging the best aspects of each company and adding strategically important technologies to our product portfolio," Biomet president & CEO Jeff Binder said in prepared remarks. "We look forward to welcoming the talented Lanx team members and distributors to Biomet and working together to build our spine business."
"Biomet Spine is the ideal home for the talent and technologies that Lanx has worked so hard to develop. The combination of these companies and their products will be a powerful force in the spine market of the future," added Lanx CEO Dan Gladney.
Biomet also said it put black ink into its ledgers for the 3 months ended August 31 on a 3.3% top-line gain, reporting profits of $31.1 million on sales of $730.7 million for the quarter, compared with losses of $31.5 million on sales of $707.4 million during the same period last year.
Adjusted to exclude 1-time items, profits grew 33.8% to $80.8 million, compared with $60.4 million during Q1 2012, according to a separate release.
"We have had a great start to fiscal year 2014. We are very pleased with the uptick in our fiscal 1st-quarter hip and knee sales, with worldwide constant currency growth at 4% and 5%, respectively, despite having 1 less selling day in the quarter. Our sports, extremities and trauma sales remained strong during the quarter with double-digit growth worldwide," Binder said in a prepared statement.
Biomet, considered a bellwether for the hip and knee replacement market, said worldwide knee sales grew 3.5% during the quarter and 5.0%
in the U.S. Global hip sales increased 1.9% and 2.9% in the U.S., according to the release.
Share prices for rivals Stryker (NYSE:SYK) and Zimmer (NYSE:ZMH) ticked up in early-morning trading on the news, with SYK shares up 0.2% to $67.67 and ZMH shares rising 1.1% to $84.10 apiece as of about 9:45 a.m.
